Tag Archives: babies

Oh, Bill. I never cease to be amazed by some of the things you teach me. For example, how the brutal and horrifying rampage in Norway was not committed by a Christian (despite the rambling Christianity-soaked manifesto, and your O’Reilly-esque insistence that all terrorist attacks are carried out by Muslims regardless of any indication of their Islamic faith), simply because you don’t think a Christian would do that. Or like how your three visits to Africa assured you that you just can’t “bring Western reasoning into the culture.” Oh, and that the ACLU is second only to Al-Qaeda in how dangerous and threatening it is. And that poverty is a result being lazy and irresponsible, and if you just work hard and go to school, then, you know, you’ll make bags and bags of money and be just fine regardless of anything else or circumstance. Which sounds totally on point, since you also taught me that conservatives “see things in black and white, and liberals see gray.” Which sounds like nuance, and uh-oh, you’ve made me see that nuance makes things complicated…

And this past week, O’Reilly taught me this: “Many women who get pregnant are blasted out of their minds when they have sex and [are] not going to use birth control anyway.”

(First of all, if the women O’Reilly and the men he knows are having sex with are blasted out of their mind, I’d be interested in hearing how that consent discussion went. Perhaps his definition of consent is a little hazy. Recall – if she’s too drunk to consent, it’s not consensual sex.)

But back to what he’s taught me. With this latest statement, I’ve learned that women – regardless of their sobriety level – are exclusively the ones who need to be concerned with contraception and infection (and that, in fact, they do a terrible job of this). Only one person in a two-person sexual encounter is responsible for ensuring the woman doesn’t get pregnant (hint – it is not the man). He’s also informed me that contraception is something only considered the exact moment before a sexual encounter occurs – not hours or days or months before – just in that whisper of a moment before the magic happens. If O’Reilly had actually engaged in sexual activity with the woman he harassed, maybe he would have just crossed his fingers that she was both sober and using birth control and not have give it a second passing thought or considered it his concern. So let’s all just do the same moving forward.

More seriously now – it’s unconscionable that someone supposes men should be able to have sex with a woman (a drunk or sober one) whenever they want and also not have to worry about or share the burden of responsibility to avoid pregnancy. We need to utilize as many tools as we can to prevent pregnancy, and that prevention should be shared equally between the two partners engaging in sexual activity. It would be great if health insurance took the lead and incorporated 50% (or 100%, if they were so inclined) of the cost of a partner’s contraception of choice into a man’s health insurance plan. I think that would be even more of a fighting point than co-pays being covered under plans.

Nancy Northrup, CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, did a great job and broke it down over at CBS News about why the hysteria over insurers now eliminating co-pays for women with contraceptive prescriptions that is bubbling over is not actually all that hysterical. In fact, it’s something that 28 states require to be covered by health insurance, something already covered (with those pesky co-pays) by government health insurance, and something that 99% of all women have used, regardless of religious affiliation.

Additionally, under the Affordable Care Act, virtually all of us will be required to have or purchase health insurance (a contentious point, still, largely among Republicans, but others as well). With what will be an added cost to the personal budget of many Americans, let’s take a snapshot of what the cost of birth control is: the pill is up to $50 a month (over $500/year), the NuvaRing is up to $70 a month (over $800/year) $500 – $1,000 for an IUD; even the morning after pill, used if other birth control methods failed or were forgotten, costs up to $70. If you are currently one of the millions without healthcare and one of the millions without a job and an income, these costs are likely to be the first that are cut as you struggle to keep you and your family afloat. However. Pre-natal care costs, the cost of delivery, well visits for a newborn – and, you know, the food and clothing needs of a baby – are not going to be cheaper than the contraception options. Bottom line – prevention can be costly, and beneficial to all. Absence of prevention is even more costly, and frequently puts a lot of burden on all parties involved.

Remember how in O’Reilly’s world everyone is super wasted when they’re having sex – too wasted to worry about a condom? All these methods – the IUD, the birth control pill, the NuvaRing – can be taken or inserted well before sex. Some don’t ever come out, some devices like the NuvaRing are changed monthly. This is why these are called preventive measures. You are utilizing them well before you engage in sexual activity, so when you’re in O’Reilly’s alcohol-soaked sex fiesta and about to engage in consensual sexual activity, pregnancy is already well on the way of being stopped in its tracks. (Not STIs, let’s not forget. None of these protect against sexually transmitted diseases.) His excuse that they aren’t thinking about using contraception holds no water in the argument of preventive techniques like these that take the worry about pregnancy prevention out of the immediate sexual encounter (not 100%, though – no method is 100% effective, and I actually recommend using one of these birth control methods as well as condoms). I’d also add here that many women when drunk are still concerned with pregnancy prevention, so that weasle-y move of trying to make intoxicated women look like reckless players shooting for a fertilized egg is also inaccurate.

Bill’s “black and white” take on the issue of contraception seems to boil down to: women need to pay for their birth control, they need to pay for their pre-natal care costs and gynecological exams, they need to pay for the cost of having the baby. But the fetus was not put there by her alone. The desire to not get pregnant is not hers alone. Communicative partnerships and cost coverage in these areas leading to happy, healthy mothers and children would benefit everyone.